TS-200 Woes

[studders]

Bought a new Freud blade for my new TS200, good price too. Last night I set about fitting it.
Things didn't start well when, following the instructions in the 'Manual', I use the term loosely, I tried to undo the bolt by turning it clockwise, it supposedly being a lefthand thread; it isn't. :roll:
A few cuts to the hand later, just exactly how are you supposed to stop the spindle turning to undo the bolt?, I had the old blade off.
Fitted the new blade and set about adjusting the riving knife. Got it where I wanted it and started to tighten the nuts that hold it on and..... one of the nuts tightened, the other just kept spinning.
I hadn't put that much pressure on the spanner so I was a little confused why the thread appeared to be stripped, I soon found out why.
The welded studs are about an inch long, on this particular saw there is over a quarter of an inch of shims :shock:
add those to the backplate thickness, the kinfe and the heavy front plate and there is only a few threads left for the nut.
After much thought about how to secure the riving knife the realisation dawned on me that I now had a major strip down of the saw to do to extract the bracket and repair it.
Happy? Me?...... Not really.

 

[tomatwark]

If it less than a year one get Axminster to replace it, if the riving knife can't be secured properly it is dangerous, ring them and see what they say, I bet you are not the only one to have had this problem.

Tom

 

[studders]

Tom,
I did think about contacting Axminster to get them to send me a new one but, the threads would very likely be the same length. It's the ridiculous amount of shims to centre the Riving Knife that is the problem. The only way to get round that is to fit longer bolts, unless I can see some way of shiming the bracket so it's more where it ought to be.

 

[tomatwark]

Hi

I would still ring them as they may know about this and have modified the saw since you bought yours.

Axminster are generally really helpful with problems like this.

The saw is badly desigined if this is the problem with all of them and I would hate to think what would happen if a riving knife came lose and ended up hitting the balde.

Tom

 

[studders]

Hi

The saw is badly desigined if this is the problem with all of them and I would hate to think what would happen if a riving knife came lose and ended up hitting the balde.

Tom

Who you calling Balde, mate?
Anyway, I'm not balde, I just have an extra wide parting.
:lol:

Seriously though, I agree, which is why there was no way I was going to use the saw with just one stud holding the knife.
Will point it out to Axminster, though my saw was new stock that I had to wait two weeks for, so I doubt they have a newer bracket. Still, don't ask, won't know.

 

[tomatwark]

At least you can still use hair gel, I have to use furniture wax. :mrgreen:

Tom

 

[studders]

At least you can still use hair gel, I have to use furniture wax. :mrgreen:

Tom

Confession time...

You were sort of right, these days I only need a 'Short back and sides please Barber'. How come I don't get discount? :|

 

[studders]

Turned out that repair wasn't quite as bad as I'd expected. Took a bit of dismantling to get the bracket off, there wasn't much left inside by then.

You can see the problem in the next shot. The stud was to short and only two threads, which were very poor to start with, were left for the nut.

I cut the thread off, drilled and tapped the remaining head that is welded to the bracket. Put a bit of 8mm stud in and added a Nyloc on the back to keep it secure.

Then it was just a case of re-fitting everything and fitting the new blade.

At least I'm now familiar with the inside of a TS200. :roll:

 

[Pond]

I can't understand how the TS200 is made! :?

From the experiences I have had so far with mine (only had it three weeks), it would appear that they are constructed by a couple of 8 year olds in Taiwan, with a random size selection of nuts, bolts and a BIG box of shims!!

I have two fence clamps sat in the bin waiting to go to the scrappies, one has a threaded bar which is smaller than the tapped hole, one which has the threaded bar seized solid into the tap with stripped thread where someone has tried to release it with pipe grips!

My blade is shimmed out with tin foil, one crown guard bolt just spins freely and the riving knife bolts are more than long enough!

oh, and the small crown guard extract hose spigot snapped from the larger hose reducer the first time I touched it!

Having said the above, it's still a good saw for the money despite the completely absent quality control; very quiet, cast table, ripped oak with ease (even with the original blade).

 

[studders]

Yes, quality control does seem to be a 'step too far' for whoever makes the machine pre branding.
The bottom rails on mine are welded at 'random' angles, which means the base has to be skewed to fit it. The side panels....... don't get me started on the side panels!!
I reckon their boss refuses to give them welding helmets, insisting it can be done by 'close your eyes and pull the trigger' welding.

Other jobs to do/done...

'Converted' extractor coupling - bin it.
So called Blade guard - replace it.
Rip fence - modify it so it is actually usable, mine was 5mm higher at the clamp end than the table so I had to do a lot of filing so wood would pass over it.

For the money though, I doubt you could buy a comparable saw that worked right out of the box.